Hell of a thing. Children being arrested in the city of Atlanta for selling water, all right? Put up the pictures for mass eleven alive news in Atlanta, Georgia, did a great job reporting on this matter. [00:00:19] Those are some of the screenshots, keep that picture up for just a minute. We've had to deal with this before in the city of Atlanta, a couple of years ago, a teenager was arrested for selling water. [00:00:37] It was during the beginning of COVID, we told the then mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, this will not be tolerated in our communities. You will not arrest children for selling water, the city did not provide options for these children. [00:00:54] These children were selling water because they were paying rent, mom and dad had been laid off. At that time, the city was still turning people's water off and not paying their bills, so they were selling water [00:01:10] in order to get water turned back on, electricity was being turned off. Various communities during this time, myself, Derek Bozeman and a few others in the city, we decided to sell water with them to show clearly, [00:01:27] we will not allow you to arrest children for water selling in this city. Channel 11 has now uncovered that they are doing it again, arresting children for selling water. [00:01:44] They sell water bottles at busy intersections or what happens when law enforcement shows up? Earlier this year, 11Alive obtained two body-worn camera videos and various incident reports from the Atlanta Police Department via public records. [00:02:01] 11Alive wanted to know more about the interactions youth and police have, as part of its continuing coverage of kids and teens selling water in the city, known as the water boys. Now I call them hydration technicians. You're playing with my money right now, a teen is heard telling APD officers on [00:02:21] the footage after being stopped for selling water at a busy intersection. Another quote, I'm telling you to leave, I'm not asking you, another APD officer yells at a younger child while trying to contact their guardian in a separate incident. [00:02:38] Although not always the case, both videos show how tension between both groups can quickly escalate from harmless to handcuffs. Quote, my response is it's a complete failure of the system, my dear brother and friend, civil rights attorney in [00:02:56] Georgia NAACP president Gerald Griggs told 11Alive news. During an interview, he also said tense interactions between the community of law enforcement can be damaging in the long run. Quote, there's another quote, leave me alone, let me go, that's a 19-year-old [00:03:14] detainee told officers while being placed into the back of a patrol car. You're effing up my life, one exclaims, the teen can be heard screaming later in the video. This particular young person, according to Attorney Griggs is telling the law enforcement, you ruined my life, and they actually are. [00:03:33] Because if he's charged with obstruction, felony obstruction, or any of the other offenses is going to go on his record. And then, he won't be able to do other things, Griggs said while interviewing and reviewing the video. 11Alive posed questions to APD, the Atlanta Police Department to sit down for [00:03:53] an interview this summer to discuss public safety concerns, community outreach, handling youth involved with water sales, and more. They declined, that's cowardly. They declined, so we asked the metro Atlanta law enforcement [00:04:11] agencies and other prospective agencies also. 11Alive tried to get other cops, other chiefs to go on the record. None of the agencies they reached out to, agreed to sit down for [00:04:30] an interview about arresting children for selling water in Atlanta. Anyone selling food or beverages needs a permit. Let me say that again, because I'm going somewhere with this point, [00:04:48] in Atlanta anyone selling food or beverages needs a permit. Now here's the reality, the part of Atlanta where children [00:05:03] get arrested for selling water is in the black community, okay? Buckhead is in Atlanta as well, if you go to Buckhead, [00:05:21] especially in the summer, you know what you'll see? You'll see white children selling lemonade and lemonade stands, they have no permit. As a matter of fact, there's a picture of an officer getting lemonade from one of [00:05:37] those lemonade stands. There was no permit check, there was no arrest, there was no dismantling of the lemonade stand. The children in Atlanta who are being arrested, people will cite things like, well, they're rude sometimes. [00:05:58] When was the last time being rude was against the law? Because if rudeness is an arrestable offense, arrest us all. The city has no options for these young people, you see, [00:06:15] what we're looking at is an effect. Put up the picture again, this is the effect of a thing, this is not the cause, arresting a child because a child is poor. And instead of selling something illegal, they're selling water, [00:06:34] which means they're investing in purchasing the water, selling the water at $1 a bottle in order to pay bills, typically at home. That's your effect. What's the cause? Economic disparity, that's your cause. If you have economic opportunities for young people, [00:06:52] if you have a job training program for young people, if you have opportunity for them, you know what happens? Instead of them trying to make $30 a day, that they have to pay a percentage of that back based on their investment model. [00:07:09] So they may actually take home 20 bucks a day in real money, okay? Don't you think if you offered them an opportunity to work a job to pay them, I don't know, perhaps $50 a day, maybe 75, possibly 100. And they could get training and mentorship in the process, they would do it. [00:07:31] The Mayor of Atlanta, during his run-off, was in a debate between him and Felicia Moore, who was the city council president at that time. I remember this debate because I was one of the moderators for [00:07:47] CBS46 news was a live televised debate, myself and Karyn Greer. In that debate, I posed the question about the young hydration technicians and what will the city do. It was at that time the mayor said under his tenure as mayor, [00:08:05] if the people elected him, children would not be arrested for selling water. Dear brother, I'm not doing this to put you on the spot, I'm doing this to remind you of your words. Children are being arrested again for selling water, [00:08:23] the city still has no viable options for them, we will work together. I made some calls last night because of the footage that I saw, we're going to work together to transform this narrative. Dear brother, I would prefer you work with me than me have to work against you. All right, professor, how do you see this? [00:08:42] >> Speaker 2: Well, [COUGH] I really like your framing a lot, actually I think that it's exactly right to see it as a systems issue, right? That this is a symptom of a lack of access, a lack of opportunity in a particular way, and I think you're right. [00:08:59] If you could use something like this to tie it to something better, you're teaching people to be entrepreneurial to not, as you say, sell drugs. But to sell something that people want, that the market needs, and use that to encourage entrepreneurialism and build around this, [00:09:14] build around it to create jobs programs. To me, that's like taking something like this and turning it into opportunity. I also say I see this in New York, for example, with immigrant communities who are selling mango slices and fruit and things like that. [00:09:30] It becomes a problem, I think, when people walk into traffic or they're too aggressive or something, but in general, they're highlighting a shortage in the market. And the whole idea is let's learn from this and build the market around it, not let's criminalize these people. >> Speaker 1: There you go, very well said. [00:09:47] All right, we are going to follow up, bring you updates as they come. Hell of a thing, children being arrested in the city of Atlanta for selling water, all right? Put up the pictures full mass. [00:10:03] 11Alive news in Atlanta, Georgia, did a great job reporting on this matter. Those are some of the screenshots, keep that picture up for just a minute, we've had to deal with this before in the city of Atlanta. [00:10:23] A couple of years ago, a teenager was arrested for selling water. It was during the beginning of COVID. We told the then mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, this will not be tolerated in our communities. [00:10:38] You will not arrest children for selling water, the city did not provide options for these children. These children were selling water because they were paying rent, mom and dad had been laid off. [00:10:54] At that time, the city was still turning people's water off and not paying their bills. So they were selling water in order to get water turned back on, electricity was being turned off. Various communities during this time, myself, [00:11:11] Derek Bozeman and a few others in the city. We decided to sell water with them, to show clearly we will not allow you to arrest children for water selling in this city. Channel 11 has now uncovered that they are doing it again, [00:11:32] arresting children for selling water. They sell water bottles at busy intersections, but what happens when law enforcement shows up? Earlier this year, 11Alive obtained two body-worn camera videos and [00:11:47] various incident reports from the Atlanta Police Department via public records. 11Alive wanted to know more about the interactions youth and police have, as part of its continuing coverage of kids and teens selling water in the city. [00:12:03] Known as the water boys, now I call them hydration technicians. You're playing with my money right now, a teen is heard telling APD officers on the footage after being stopped for selling water at a busy intersection. Another quote, I'm telling you to leave, [00:12:21] I'm not asking you, another APD officer yells at a younger child while trying to contact their guardian in a separate incident. Although not always the case, both videos show how tension between both groups can quickly escalate from harmless to handcuffs. [00:12:38] Quote, my response is it's a complete failure of the system, my dear brother and friend, civil rights attorney in Georgia NAACP president Gerald Griggs told 11Alive news. During an interview, he also said, tense interactions between the community and [00:12:58] law enforcement can be damaging in the long run. Quote, there's another quote, leave me alone, let me go, that's a 19-year-old detainee told officers while being placed into the back of a patrol car. You're effing up my life, one exclaims, the teen can be heard screaming later in the video. [00:13:16] This particular young person, according to attorney Griggs, is telling the law enforcement, you ruined my life and they actually are. Because if he's charged with obstruction, felony obstruction, or any of the other offenses, is going to go on his record and then he won't be able to [00:13:34] do other things, Griggs said while interviewing and reviewing the video. 11Alive posed questions to APD, the Atlanta police Department to sit down for an interview this summer to discuss public safety concerns, community outreach, handling youth involved with water sales and more. [00:13:52] They declined, that's cowardly, they declined, so we asked the Metro Atlanta law enforcement agencies and other prospective agencies also. [00:14:08] 11Alive tried to get other cops, other chiefs to go on the record. None of the agencies they reached out to, agreed to sit down for an interview about arresting children for selling water. [00:14:27] In Atlanta anyone selling food or beverages needs a permit. Let me say that again because I'm going somewhere with this point, in Atlanta anyone selling food or beverages needs a permit. [00:14:45] Now here's the reality, the part of Atlanta where children get arrested for selling water is in the black community, okay? [00:15:08] Buckhead is in Atlanta as well, you know if you go to Buckhead, especially in the summer, you know what you'll see? You'll see white children selling lemonade and lemonade stands, they have no permit. [00:15:25] As a matter of fact, there's a picture of an officer getting lemonade from one of those lemonade stands, there was no permit check. There was no arrest, there was no dismantling of the lemonade stand. The children in Atlanta who are being arrested, [00:15:42] people will cite things like, well, they're rude sometimes. When was the last time being rude was against the law? Because if rudeness is an arrestable offense, arrest us all. [00:16:03] The city has no options for these young people, you see, what we're looking at is an effect. Put up the picture again. This is the effect of a thing, this is not the cause, arresting a child because a child is poor and [00:16:19] instead of selling something illegal, they're selling water. Which means they're investing in purchasing the water, selling the water at $1 a bottle in order to pay bills, typically at home, that's your effect. [00:16:35] What's the cause? Economic disparity, that's your cause. If you have economic opportunities for young people, if you have a job training program for young people, if you have opportunity for them, you know what happens? [00:16:52] Instead of them trying to make $30 a day that they have to pay a percentage of that back based on their investment model. So they may actually take home 20 bucks a day in real money, okay? Don't you think if you offered them an opportunity to work a job to pay them, [00:17:12] I don't know, perhaps $50 a day, maybe 75, possibly 100, and they could get training and mentorship in the process, they would do it. The mayor of Atlanta, during his run-off was in a debate between him and [00:17:29] Felicia Moore, who was the city council president at that time. I remember this debate because I was one of the moderators for CBS46 news was a live televised debate, myself and Karyn Greer. In that debate, I posed the question about the young hydration technicians and [00:17:50] what will the city do. It was at that time the mayor said under his tenure as mayor, if the people elected him, children would not be arrested for selling water. Dear brother, I'm not doing this to put you on the spot, [00:18:07] I'm doing this to remind you of your words. Children are being arrested again for selling water, the city still has no viable options for them. We will work together, I made some calls last night because of the footage that I saw, we're going to work together to transform this narrative. [00:18:25] Dear brother, I would prefer you work with me than me have to work against you, all right? Professor, how do you see this? >> Speaker 2: Well, [COUGH] I really like your framing a lot, actually I think that it's exactly right to see it as a systems issue, right? [00:18:42] That this is a symptom of a lack of access, a lack of opportunity in a particular way, and I think you're right. If you could use something like this to tie it to something better, you're teaching people to be entrepreneurial, to not, as you say, sell drugs. [00:18:59] But to sell something that people want, that the market needs, and use that to encourage entrepreneurialism and build around this, build around it to create jobs programs. To me, that's like taking something like this and turning it into opportunity. I also say, I see this in New York, for example, with immigrant communities who [00:19:17] are know, mango slices and fruit and things like know. It becomes a problem, I think, when people walk into traffic or they're too aggressive or something, but in general, they're highlighting a shortage in the market. And the whole idea is let's learn from this and build the market around it, [00:19:35] not let's criminalize these people. >> Speaker 1: There you go, very well said. All right, we are going to follow up, bring you updates as they come.